This was a rough year. The Bears opened the season four days early and commemorated the NFL’s 100th season by scoring as many points (three) as they routinely did in the Decatur Staleys days. The fact that the humiliation occurred in prime time in a standalone game against the Packers just added to the indignity of it all.

The Packers, with their 12-year-old head coach–Mike Something–and a decaying Aaron Rodgers played 9-7 football, which was to be expected, only they somehow won 13 games. Seriously, their Pythagorean record was 9.7 – 6.3.

Hey, Dick Jauron once won 13 games with a Bears team that played Shane Matthews at quarterback on purpose, so things like that happen. But the playoffs are the great equalizer and teams like that get bounced away pretty quickly.  The Packers 13-3 earned them the two seed in the NFC and all but guaranteed a Lambeau beatdown by the Saints in round two.  And then the Saints went and lost to Kirk Cousins and the Vikings, which means the Packers end up hosting the Seattke¹ Seahawks, who are sifting through the dumpster behind that fish shop that throws the fish at people for running backs. A couple of weeks ago they found Marshawn Lynch.  This week, maybe it’ll be Maurice Morris.

So it’s entirely possible that the Packers will blunder their way into an NFC Championship game. Don’t believe me? Their Super Bowl odds improved last week while their fans were tailgating in front of a Culver’s in Appleton. Not playing improved them from +1000 to win the Super Bowl to +800, and it makes perfect sense, according to the guys at MyTopSportsbooks.com. The Saints are gone, and Green Bay could very well just need to beat one real team to get to “the big game.”

Valhalla-forbid that the Vikings somehow beat the Niners on Saturday to set up an all NFC North title game. We’ve seen one of those, and it didn’t end well.

Oh well, maybe all of this worrying is for naught. The Packers offense has only scored more than 24 points once in the last eight weeks, and they concluded the season on a five game winning streak but that included less than dominant wins over the Redskins, Bears and Lions. Their one beatdown came in that stretch when they rolled the Giants 31-13, even though the Giants had more time of possession and more total yards than the Packers. The Packers secret weapon? Daniel Jones threw three picks.  Russell Wilson is no Daniel Jones.

The other silver lining?  The Seahawks Super Bowl odds also improved dramatically after their win over our old pal Josh McCown and the Eagles. They went from +2500 to a near Packers-esque +1200, and a big part of that is because the Vikings upset also benefits the Seahawks. Instead of having to go to San Francisco in round two they get a colder, but cushier matchup in Green Bay.

How’s the weather look for Sunday evening?  Well, bleak enough that Packers put out a request for their “owners” to come help shovel the stadium.

Packers request volunteers to help shovel snow from Lambeau Field ahead of game vs. Seahawkshttps://t.co/3B5xDRYnm8 pic.twitter.com/42codLmXjw

— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) January 10, 2020

The odds-on favorites to win the Super Bowl are still the Ravens at +200, and the Chiefs and Niners are both +350.  Want to set some money on fire? The Texans, who should have lost to Buffalo last week, would have to win at KC and almost certainly in Baltimore just to get to the Super Bowl, much less win it. They are +3300.

1. I know you think I spelled that wrong, but ask the Tribune headline writer in 2004 how to spell it.